Hi Barb,
If you are talking about grass creeping under the fence from a neighboring area, I use border edging... I found some green plastic pieces that are about 4-5' long made for edging beds, so they have a sharp serrated edge on one side and a flat top - making it easy to hammer into the ground. It took a while to get it positioned just right under the fence, but it is working like a charm! Originally I used this to keep the neighbor dogs from biting my dogs under the fence, but found it works great for keeping the grass out too!

Hope this helps,
Michelle

I have got to go get this stuff. A bed in TX is impossible without it. I learned that the hard way of course. PJ

Thanks Michelle this is what I was talking about. I used that type of edging for one of my beds but not up around the fence so I'll have to get it a try.

Barb

I use the metal edging along my long fence as they are 10' long and I don't have as many seams for the grass to creep thru. I do use the shorter plastic eding Michelle is talking about for shorter needs. I believe it is called Emerald Edge.

Emerald Edge plastic edging works best, as it goes several inches into the ground. You can use anything that goes into the ground, though. There are some other products that work in a similar way.

If you have St. Augustine, that will grow over any edging, and requires regular weed eating along the edging.

Good luck if it is Bermuda. I think Bermuda has some advanced powers that give it the ability to "beam" itself across open space to invade someplace that its not wanted. I pull it out by hand but it keeps coming back.

roundup
J.D.

NOT ROUNDUP!

No garden is worth destroying the environment.

If your garden is more important, you shouldn't garden at all.

Kind of defeats the purpose creating beauty and is seriously selfish! OKAY that's my two cents.

Now- on the subject.

I have Hard Yuccas on my fence line and when I have to pull grass growing from under the neighbors yard, you can often hear me cussing from being poked by the yuccas! One of these days I'll wise up and hammer in a barrier!

Oh and did I say -? NO ROUNDUP!!!!!

RoundUp (glyphosate) breaks down and leaves no harmful residual, but, yes, it will kill just about anything green - especially grass. Properly applied, it is quite safe and efficient. I salute you who do it all without 'chemicals'. But, I don't share your point of view. No hard feelings. :-)
J.D.

Barb,
The best thing I've ever seen for this is "Grass B Gone". It's also sold under a couple of different names, including "Grass Killer". The active ingredient is fluazifop. Maybe I spelled that wrong, but it's close enough for you to be able to identify it. Lowe's sold it for a while then they stopped and the only place I can find it is at my farmer's store.
I have NO edging around my flower beds, but there is a perfect line between where the beds stop and the grass begins because you can spray this stuff directly on your ornamental plants and it will only kill the grass. It will kill ornamental grass, too.
I grumbled for a couple of years because I bought this and it "didn't work". But it really does work, it just takes longer than Round Up. The grass will be dead as a doornail in 2 weeks, but will look really green and healthy until the end of those 2 weeks.
Hope this helps. My husband and I were just saying yesterday about how groomed our yard looks now that we use this stuff.

I, too, discovered grass killer with fluazifop works great in keeping grass out of flower/shrub borders. The weedeater maintains a pretty neat border, but if some grass sneaks in, (even the dreaded bermuda) this stuff really works. What is really great is that I can spray it when the grass has intermingled with shrubs/flowers and no damage will be done except to the grass! Although I am basically an organic gardener, I do use chemicals in a very limited way in certain situations. I doubt that I am hurting the environment with my sparse use of these products in my garden compared to household and beauty products that are used in abandon every day with never a thought to their residual effects. IMHO

If the grass is bermuda or nutsedge, round up is probably the only thing that will kill it.

Applying a pre-emergent, such as Amaze can keep Bermuda and nutsedge from "reseeding".

Be careful if applying pre-emergents, especially if you are planning to plant something directly in the spot in the next few months.

St. Augustine can be controlled with barriers and pulling. Although it will grow up along edging, it is easy to control. Round Up can be too aggressive for St. Augustine. (Depending on the situation and how much St. Augustine you want to kill) One time I used Round Up to control St. Augustine that was getting from my lawn into my flower bed. (I used a stong dose of Round Up) Well, the round up traveled along the St. Augustine stolons and killed it out into 2 feet of my lawn.

I don't know if products like Grass B Gon can be used around "monocots". (Plants with grass like leaves like liriope) My husband once got on my case about using Grass B Gon around liriope. I told my husband, "Liriope isn't a grass, it's a lily".

Well, my husband had a good point, liriope is a monocot. So are lilies, irises, amaryllis, bulbine, yucca, and the majority of bulbs (Plants with a single leaf blade)

Grass B Gon's label has a list of plants that can tolerate the product and I don't see any monocots on their list. (Sometimes what you don't read is more important than what you do read.)

Also, Grass B Gon will not kill nutsedge.

To add to this confusion, nutsedge is often called bermuda.

Nutsedge is the one that you pull up and it keeps coming back, even stronger. It gives bermuda a bad name.

Hope this wasn't too confusing.

A little off topic here: But, since I'm clearing out hackberry and nutsedge from my sunny bed. The best prevention for these types of weeds, is lots and lots of plants!!!! The weeds have taken hold wherever there is a gap. So, I need to plant more plants!!!

I was wrong before. Grass B Gone has fluazifop as the active ingredient. It kills bermuda grass. The brand Hi - Yield that some of the farmers stores sells has a product called Grass Killer. I was mistaken in saying that the active ingredient in that was fluazifop, it is actually Sethoxydim. It kills bermuda grass. Neither product kills that nutsedge stuff. I don't know about the monocot plants ... the label actually didn't even list roses as being something it was safe around. But the expert at the farmer's store said it was safe around roses so I tried it and it worked.
Bermuda is the only kind of weed that lived through me putting down 1 layer of boxes, 1 layer of compost, a 2nd layer of boxes, and then topping all of that with mulch. I've done a humongous area like that so that it is just mulched paths with roses and perennials on either side, no grass at all. I should have put down round up a few times before the boxes and the mulch. Lesson learned. I've put down about 3 rounds of round up in preparation for my fall planting to continue the rose garden out through the rest of the orchard. Just for the record, I know that prepping the ground with round up before putting down boxes will work because that's what I did with the first big rose garden I planted. No weeds yet and it's been nearly 3 years!
Anyway, I just wrote all of that so that you know I'm speaking from experience!

I use Grass Be Gone all the time right on top of lirope and every other garden plant I have. It just kills grass, even bermuda, but not nut grass which is really not a grass. I do have a chem that kills it but had to buy a bottle of undiluted and it wasn't cheap. Will have to look at the name of it tomorrow if anyone is interested.

I used a line of concrete stepping stones placed on end. I went to such great lengths because I was creating a raised bed and wanted to keep the soil clear from the wood fence (some people create paths between the fence and raised bed). So far it has kept the grass out.

I am very interested in what kills nut grass. I've got clumps of it in places where I can't use Round Up.

I used an amazing product (Sedgehammer) to kill nutsedge. I purchased it from a local nursery. It is powder form to be mixed with water and something to make it stick. (I used Hi-Yield Spreader Sticker) I sprayed it on my nutsedge and waited for it to turn yellow. It seemed to have no effect at all. Then my yard was mowed and the nutsedge never came back. I was sure I would have some yellowing, but it never happened. I thought it was magic the way the nutsedge disappeared!! It has not returned.
Anyway, I did not use the entire package, just divided it up and put in a spray bottle. It is expensive, but it is very effective. It did not harm my turf at all. It sounds like Roselee may have used a different product. (You can look up Sedgehammer on the web for more info.

I killed all the grass in my yard, bit by bit, I dug it up, pulled it out... Once in a while it tries to creep in from the neighbors yard, with all the plants it can't get a good foothold & is easier to pull. I pour boiling water along the fence, there is a short concrete wall next to it, this kills anything growing in that small space. Works for ants too. Vinegar is another thing you can try, spray it full strength on the foliage you want to kill.

I don't use chemicals but MOST stuff you can buy in garden centers these days is not anywhere near as toxic as what was out 10 years ago. I'm much more concerned with stuff like prescription meds, did you know every major source of water in the United States tests positive for things like antidepressants & hormones? Don't flush your old meds!
Tally HO!